5 Customer Experience Trends That Will Affect Your Company in 2018

Many companies face an “uncomfortable truth” when it comes to the digital transformation of their customers’ experience. While most organizations (89%) say that it is essential for their survival, more than half (51%) has not done anything about it yet. Based on the data of the report “2017 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report”, prepared by Dimension Data, the consultant has established 5 trends of customer experience that will affect companies in 2018.

Thus, during this year, it is expected to see a massive growth among companies that are optimally executing a clear customer experience strategy. On the other hand, for those organizations that execute the CX badly, the perspective is less positive.

5 trends of customer experience that will affect companies in 2018

#1: The gap between leading and lagging companies is widening

Dimension Data foresees that the gap between the organizations that lead the customer experience and those that will not, will be extended in 2018. Therefore, companies that have a clear strategy and execute it successfully will experience a broad growth.

• Customers are willing to pay 45 times more for an excellent customer experience.
• Leading companies evaluate the customer journey from start to finish.

#2: disruptive innovators have established the omnichannel experience standard

A priority and, at the same time, a struggle for organizations is to offer a fluid customer experience in all their contact channels. The average number of customer service channels is 9, but it is expected to increase to 11 in 2018. Getting these channels to interact with each other is the challenge.

• Companies with the strongest omnichannel strategies retain 89% of their clients.
• 89% of clients feel frustrated when they need to repeat their problems to multiple agents.
• 59% of customers are less likely to interact with a company due to a bad mobile experience.

#3: The Internet of Things (IoT) will increase the customer’s proactive experience

The client’s expectations are continually increasing. With the anticipated boom in IoT technology, these expectations will increase faster and will be higher than ever in 2018. To rise to the challenge, organizations that want to be leaders in CX should focus on providing a proactive customer experience.

• In 2018, six billion ‘things’ will have the ability to request help.
• By 2025, the IoT could generate more than 11 billion dollars a year in economic value through improvements such as intelligent management of customer relations.
• 60% of the investments in digital analysis will be invested in the analysis of the ‘customer journey’ in 2018.

#4: Machines are partners, not just tools, for agents

At the heart of digital transformation is cost reduction combined with increased productivity. In 2018, employees will perform more value-added tasks by offering assisted service to digital self-service customer experience channels.

• By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with a company without interacting with a human being.
• Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) will triple as companies work to convert customer data into personalized experiences.
• In 2018, 50% of agent interactions will be influenced by real-time analysis.

#5: Mobile communication based on the customer’s location is driving a competitive advantage

In 2018 the use of Beacon technology will increase, a variation of Bluetooth that allows a mobile device to indicate downloaded apps when moving to a certain area. This technology will direct personalized messaging to a client and improve the customer experience, as well as communication and collaboration in the workplace.

• 90% of consumers consult their smartphones while in physical stores.
• With Beacon technology, the network becomes a tool that organizations can use to promote greater customer participation and create more specific marketing campaigns.

In conclusion, according to the consultancy Dimension Data, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), analysis and automatic learning are some of the largest channel investments that companies will make in 2018. But it is important that organizations make sure they have digital infrastructure and the strategy needed to support a hybrid workforce between agents and chatbots.